To be totally honest, I don't actually think Skyrim lives up to its hype ... but playing Skyrim VR is a radically different experience that overshadows many of the game's flaws.
Traditionally, Bethesda PC games are best when modded into infinity, and that remains the case with Skyrim VR.
According to official word from Bethesda, mods aren't supported and aren't even supposed to work at all for Skyrim VR. But as many players have discovered, Nexus Mods is full of juicy goodness -- and many will load (to varying levels of success) as long as the mod in question doesn't rely on the Skyrim Script Extender (which sadly means most of the nudie mods aren't functional yet).
Due to the nature of VR and changes to the game between versions, some of the game's texture mods can behave oddly, and you might get some buggy behavior with mods that drastically change the base gameplay, but overall, most of your favorite Nexus mods are workable with Skyrim VR.
In the next few slides, we cover the best PC mods you should download immediately to make Skyrim VR even more immersive!
If you're looking for general Skyrim tips and tricks, make sure to check out our Skyrim guides page for more.
Skyrim VR Mod: VR Mirror
Although you'll still probably spend hours customizing your character in Skyrim VR, the virtual reality version doesn't give you many opportunities to actually see your character.
That's where the VR Mirror mod comes into play. This stop-gap mod adds a mirror feature into the game that lets you directly look at yourself to make sure you've got your character's appearance exactly the way you intended.
It might not be a big deal, but whether you're playing on the Oculus or the Vive, looking badass is half the fun of Skyrim. And if you're looking for more immersive gameplay, this is a must-have addition.
Skyrim VR Mod: Skyrim 2017 Textures
Without question, this is the first graphical mod you want to install for Skyrim VR.
While playing Skyrim from a first-person, VR perspective can be jaw-dropping, the luster will quickly wear off as you realize that the original 2011 textures are being used (for some reason).
Despite how good gameplay can be in Skyrim VR, looks do matter after a while. So if you want to look at characters and locations that don't seem tailor-made for the Xbox 360, this updated texture mod is simply a basic requirement for an immersive gameplay experience.
Skyrim VR Mod: SSE Fixes
If you experience frequent frame rate drops, low FPS, other stuttering issues that pull you out of Skyrim VR, try installing this optimization mod from Nexus Mods.
Some users have reported it results in a much smoother overall VR experience, even though the mod was originally meant for the Special Edition version of the game.
Skyrim VR Mod: Sounds of Skyrim Complete
While visuals are what usually get all the press in VR games, sound and music are equally important when creating an immersive gameplay experience -- especially if you want that experience to be worth the price of admission.
This Skyrim VR mod pack combines the Sounds of Skyrim -- Civilization; Sounds of Skyrim -- The Wilds; and Sounds of Skyrim -- The Dungeons to add 460 additional unique sounds to the game. Some are even affected by the time of day, weather, and location.
The end result is a Skyrim experience that sounds and feels more alive.
Skyrim VR Mod: Immersive Citizens
It's true that the phrases "Skyrim NPCs" and "gameplay immersion" don't necessarily go hand in hand. Guards that take arrows to the head, wander around for a minute, and then say, "Huh, guess it was nothing" are very much an immersion-breaking problem.
And in Skyrim VR, that's not something you really want.
This mod deals with these types of issues by tweaking the AI of NPCs to make them act more like real people, which is good unless you like stupid NPCs. To each their own.
Skyrim VR Mod: Vivid Weather Definitive Edition
Being inside Skyrim is a lot different than looking at it from the outside. When you're playing Skyrim VR on the Oculus or HTC Vive, you don't take things like weather and huge cliffs for granted.
That's why it's important for every little grain of sand, every drop of water, and every flak of snow to look downright gorgeous. That's where this mod comes in to play.
Better weather effects revamps the whole color scheme of the game and provides an increased level of immersion while trekking from Whiterun to the College Of Winterhold. Couple this with the Skyrim 2017 textures mod, and you'll be in a brand-new Elder Scrolls worlds you never knew existed.
Skyrim VR Mod: HD Signs
It's a fact that current-gen VR can get blurry. Depending on what you're trying to focus on and from what angle, text can be a pain in the ass to read. In a game like Skyrim, which is filled to the brim with signs and books (not to mention the in-game map you use all the time), that's a bit of a problem.
That's where the HD Signs mod makes a really small change into a really big quality of life upgrade. Not only does the mod help with immersion, it helps with the very literal headache vanilla Skyrim VR can give you from all the squinting it forces you to do.
Skyrim VR Mod: Book Covers of Skyrim
Just like the HD Signs mod on the previous slide, this Skyrim VR mod makes a small change that greatly impacts immersion.
Most of the vanilla Skyrim's books are a dime a dozen on the outside. Even if they have unique stories within, their covers can leave a lot to be desired.
This mod re-textures absolutely every single readable book, journal, and note in the game, giving them all unique covers. It even changes different paper types between books.
Skyrim VR Mod: Immersive Armors
Let's just keep the immersion train chugging along with this graphics enhancement mod. To keep your eyes glued to the inside of your helmet, we definitely recommend a mod like Immersive Armors, which adds in new clothing options for everyone in Skyrim VR -- players, companions, and NPCs.
This mod drastically increases the variety of armors found in Skyrim, but it does so without breaking the lore or changing the visual style of the base game.
When you've got so many armor options in your face, it's essential they look good.
Skyrim VR Mod: JK's Skyrim
While Skyrim is absolutely huge, much of it can feel empty between towns and dungeons. To combat that issue, JK's Skyrim mod adds in a massive lore-friendly (and thankfully script-free) overhaul of the entire base game.
All of the major Skyrim towns -- from Windhelm to Dawnstar -- get big expansions that add in more vendors, buildings, and lore details. The mod even tweaks allegiances for towns guards, with dynamic banners that change based on your actions over the course of the game.
Skyrim VR Mod: Amazing Follower Tweaks
Whether you are playing the vanilla, the Special Edition, the VR version, or the next Alexa version of Skyrim, you absolutely want to install a follower tweaking mod like this one.
Followers that get in your way, rush to their deaths, or just behave oddly can kill immersion in Skyrim VR, but with a mod like this one, followers become more useful and less annoying.
With the mod installed, you can manage a follower's outfits and combat style in addition to having them ride horses, make camp, avoid traps, ignore friendly fire, and even dance with you.
Skyrim VR Mod: Custom Favorites Menu VR
If you're using the custom favorites script to get all of your favorite weapons, skills, and spells at the beginning of the game, then this VR-friendly CFG file is a must. It tweaks the favorites for a centered view and bigger texts to work more smoothly in the game's VR edition.
Essentially, this is the HD Signs mod for basically most everything else in the game. This is a Skyrim VR mod you're going to want to nab pretty early on.
For those jumping into modding this new version of the game, any of these mods installed through the Nexus Mod Manager will work with Skyrim VR with a little tweaking (check out the video guide below to learn more). Or(!) you can use the Vortex manager directly to get mods immediately working with Skyrim VR.
These were the best Skyrim Nexus mods we've been able to get working with the VR version of the game so far. What did you think of our list, and what mods do you consider absolutely essential to the Skyrim VR experience? Let us know in the comments!
Published: Apr 9, 2018 04:04 pm